This invention relates to the packeting of net bags, more particularly to a method of making net bags constructed for stacking a plurality of the bags and holding the bags in assembly in the stack with fastening means such as a wicket.
This invention is especially concerned with packeting net bags, e.g., bags comprising a flat bag tube of net material having a bottom end closure comprising a length of tape folded around one end of the bag tube (constituting the bottom end of the bag) and secured to the tube. Reference may be made to Dickmann U.S. Pat. No. 3,424,113 showing apparatus for applying such bottom end closures to open-mesh bag tubes. The packeting is of a type referred to as wicket pack, in which a stack of bags is held in assembly by means of a U-shaped wire member or "wicket", which each successive bag adapted to be opened at its mouth for filling; and then separated from the stack. Reference may be made to such patents as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,312,339, 3,329,260, 3,338,398 and 3,777,930 showing wicketed packets of bags made of sheet plastic material (e.g., polyethylene film) as distinguished from net, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,198,325 showing a packet of bags made of sheet plastic material with fastening means equivalent to a wicket. Unlike sheet plastic material (e.g., polyethylene film) used for bags, net material used for bags (e.g., knitted net material knit from narrow ribbons of polyethylene film) cannot be readily torn like film, and this has heretofore precluded packeting net bags in wicket-type packs.
The invention involves a method of providing net bags with wicketing flaps of the general type shown in the copending coassigned U.S. patent application of James R. Stricker, Ser. No. 825,984, filed Aug. 19, 1977, now abandoned. That application shows a bag made of net material knitted from strands constituted by narrow ribbons of high-density polyethylene film having opposed walls, closed at its bottom and open at its mouth edge, and having a flap comprising a strip of polyethylene film sealed to one of the walls of the bag, said strip having a portion projecting beyond the mouth edge of said one wall, and said projecting portion having a pair of holes therein for receiving the legs of a wicket.